Hege, Ulrich, Pouget, Sébastien and Zhang, Yifei (2023) The Impact of Corporate Climate Action on Financial Markets: Evidence from Climate-Related Patents. TSE Working Paper, n. 23-1400, Toulouse

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Abstract

We study the impact of climate-related patents on financial markets. We exploit the quasi-random assignment of patent examiners with different degrees of leniency as an exogenous shock in patent approvals to allow for causal interpretations. We find that firms with more lucky climate-related patents subsequently display higher positive cumulative abnormal stock returns and enjoy a lower cost of capital, compared with similarly innovative but unlucky firms. These results hold especially during periods of high attention towards climate change and for initial climate patent granting.
Firms with more lucky climate-related patents also exhibit better environmental ratings and attract more responsible institutional investors. OLS regressions show that firms developing more climate-related technologies reduce more direct carbon emission intensity.

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Language: English
Date: January 2023
Place of Publication: Toulouse
Uncontrolled Keywords: climate-related patents, green patents, examiner leniency, climate change, implied cost of capital, ESG ratings, responsible investors, CO2 emissions.
JEL Classification: G11 - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
G23 - Pension Funds; Other Private Financial Institutions
G24 - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage; Ratings and Ratings Agencies
O34 - Intellectual Property Rights - National and International Issues
Subjects: B- ECONOMIE ET FINANCE
Divisions: TSE-R (Toulouse)
Institution: Université Toulouse 1 Capitole
Site: UT1
Date Deposited: 19 Jan 2023 07:51
Last Modified: 15 Mar 2024 09:35
OAI Identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:127752
URI: https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/46725
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